Both low-cost and regular airlines have seen their air traffic increase by at least 10% in the wake of Romania's EU integration.
"EU integration has certainly increased the levels of air traffic in Romania. At this stage it's much too early to talk about percentages, as is the case with British Airways, whose comparative statistical data is expected to be available as late as in two months time," said Corina Enciu, commercial manager with BA for Romania and Moldova. Still, BA officials estimate the number of passengers has increased on the Bucharest-UK route, as a result of the elimination of foreign visas for Romanian citizens travelling to fellow EU countries.
BA introduced a new daily flight to London in 2006, thus doubling the number of weekly flights on the Bucharest-London route. Consecutively, the company posted an occupancy rate of 86% in February, up 11% against the same month in 2006.
Other than BA, low-cost operators boasted the highest growth rates, generally a growth of more than 50%, expecting to double or even triple their passenger numbers every year. As a result of positive figures, a rising number of airlines are interested in the domestic low-cost market owing to its growth potential.
Most of the airlines operating in Romania have introduced new destinations for 2007 or increased the frequency of existing destinations, which helped the growth.
Carpatair, the second biggest domestic airline, has seen the number of passengers increase by 22% since the start of the year against the same period for in 2006. In total, the company has transported 73,618 passengers so far this year.
At the same time, the number of passengers on the Bucharest-Zurich route operated by SWISS airline rose by 10% in the first two months of this year compared with the same corresponding period last year.
The SWISS airline did not introduce any new flights in 2006, but raised its occupancy rate, seeing an increase of 10% in passenger levels on the same number of flights.
Air France also reported considerable growth on its routes to and from Romania, but the company's representatives do not believe this is related to Romania's EU integration.
Eurolines Romania registered 26% higher ticket sales for the companies part of IATA.
Even though low-cost air travel was expected to develop at the expense of road transportation, this trend has not been highly visible until now. However, amid an ever-expanding low cost air travel industry, some of the people travelling by coach may now begin to switch to low-cost airlines.
According to the National Statistics Institute data, Romanians' exits advanced by 12.3% this January against January 2005, resulting in the majority of transporters witnessing increases.
The regular airline market is expected to see the number of passengers increase by 8.4%, to 3.8 million, according to IATA Romania representatives.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
